This riveting history of some of America's most beautiful natural resources, by the author of the National Outdoor Book Award–winning The Wilderness Warrior, documents the heroic fight waged by the U.S. federal government from 1879 to 1960 to save wild Alaska from the extraction industries.

"Douglas Brinkley has written a sweeping, blow-by-blow account of the struggle to preserve the last great remnants of American wilderness. An engaging appraisal of the crucial skirmishes in the battle over wild Alaska, The Quiet World is populated not only by such requisite luminaries as John Muir and Ansel Adams but also by a cast of quirky, unexpected characters."—Jon Krakauer